Selfie Society

Social media is a wonderful, disturbing thing. At any given moment, you can read of miraculous, answered prayers or learn disturbing things about your friends from their posts. And then, there are the selfies: pictures of people standing in front of bathroom mirrors, holding up their phone to capture whatever pose they feel compelled to share. People either intensely love or hate selfies.

Our society is overrun with the selfie attitude – not the pictures themselves, but that level of inward focus where the world revolves around oneself. Young people chase every kind of “fun” available to fulfill themselves, ironically damaging their future selves in the process. Lazy workers focus their energy on disparaging their employers instead of performing quality work. Husbands and wives leave their families in an attempt to fulfill what’s lacking within themselves. Self-important Christians pat themselves on the back for their “faith” but have no time for the very ones they are called to serve.

We’re all a bunch of selfies.

And society wonders why Christ had the audacity to claim that we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and that not one of us is righteous (Rom 3:10), meaning morally right; free of guilt or sin.

Jesus is the only one who walked this earth with utter selflessness. He came to give fully of himself to the point of death so that we may live the eternal life of the blameless. We can only try to imitate the selflessness He modeled for us.

Philippians 2:3-8Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Has being a selfie ever truly satisfied you? Aren’t you tired of looking in the mirror for that elusive “something” that will finally fulfill you? What keeps you from trusting the only One who has ever been, or ever could be, wholly selfless? Try looking outside yourself – He is the only one who can meet every longing and give you true purpose.